The Tale of a Server
by SkyLadyAnnemarie
Summary: Lame-ish poem about one of my favorite servers that's being shut down; sort of a tribute-story-thing. Officially continuing! First chapter up! R&R please, it helps me know how to do things better. K plus for some covered-up H words, not much else.
1. The Poem of the Server

**A/N: Okay, so those of you who have looked at my profile a while back may recall that I was planning on a fanfiction titled "Minecraft Memories" which was eventually canceled.**

**I feel kinda bad for doing this and not chapter 10 of _A Land Without Hope_, BUT STILL. You can file your complaints in the review section :P**

**Ironically, one of my favorite servers is going, for lack of a better word, bye-bye, so I was inspired to write this poem summarizing what I felt personally about the server and whatnot. I can turn it into an all-out, **_**The World in Which we Fail**_**-style fanfiction if you want, with little book quotes at the beginning of each chapter a la **_**Inkheart**_**. I'm just posting this as a lame attempt at poetry, word-for-word as it was written in my free writing notebook. There are at least two things I wish I could have found a better word for, but whatever. It's up to you to decide if it's any good or not.**

**Allons-y!**

* * *

"_The world is dark,_

_And light is precious,_

_Come closer, dear reader,_

_You must trust me;_

_I am telling you a story"_

-Kate Dicamillo,

_The Tale of Despereaux_

* * *

There once was a server,

Its people happy and free,

Where travelers roamed the land;

With such great sights to see.

And on this little server,

There arouse a mighty team;

Wrufus, TG, Zorro, and me.

There were many others;

From mblack to idle,

We treated each other like brothers;

On this little server, did we.

Zorro was a leader,

(At least in my eyes)

TG was a warrior;

With blades of every size.

We all had a place,

Of which we never strayed,

But for this little server,

Things will never be the same.

This magic server of VanillaCraft,

From which I have made a home,

Is coming to an end;

Soon there will be no place to roam.

And yet every day I hope

That the server will remain

But hope alone can't stop it;

This server, soon now, will die.

For this server of VanillaCraft,

I cannot thank enough,

But 'hello' must lead to 'goodbye'

And now the times are rough.

Do you wish to hear my story?

There are many things to tell;

From the clutches of SpawnLand,

To travelling in He**

But time is short so quickly, now,

Before the flames go out,

I must start from the beginning;

And all the happenings thereabout.

* * *

**A/N: So… there you have it. I tried to make it at the end like the 'I' person (aka me) is like an old lady in an Inn, telling a bunch of kids and stuff about her adventures on VanillaCraft (which is the actual name of the server, oh by the way). And they want to hear the whole thing, so yeah.**

**So, like the next-to-last paragraph; do you want to hear my story? This October (or maybe November, I'm not that good with wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff) will be a year since I first joined the server, so I've got **_**a lot**_** to tell if you do.**

**PLEASE TELL ME SOMETHING! Even if you're just saying how much this failed attempt at poetry sucks, that's fine. As long as you tell me what I can do to make it better :P**

**Yes, I do place asterisks on my own writing. I just can't get myself to write the actual word. Blame the fact that my mother would bury me alive and dance on my grave if she saw I wrote a bad word. :L**

**And on that happy note; my name is SkyLadyAnnemarie, I really need to start writing chapter 10 of ALWH, and I bid you adieu.**


	2. Join Server: A teaser-chapter

**A/N: Okay, so guys, I was checking my multiplayer servers, waiting to play some MineZ when the unthinkable happened.**

**VanillaCraft didn't load.**

**I scrolled my mouse over the exed out connection bars.**

**It said "Cannot find connection" or something like that.**

**So, as much as it pains me to say,**

**VanillaCraft…**

**Is gone.**

**Forever.**

**Never to be seen again.**

…**Sniff ;-;**

**So, I decided that since the server is officially gone, I might as well at least give you all a preview chapter thing, to see if you want more. 2 reviews, as grateful as I am to have them, aren't all that good enough confirmation when you want to continue a story or not.**

**Although, it is a record for number of reviews I've gotten on a single chapter.**

…**I feel even more depressed now D:**

***five minutes later***

**My little sister just showed me some "lol-so-true" JIFs. I feel a bit better now :/**

**EDIT: Just realized I forgot to do the book quote at the beginning, I'm a derp *headdesks***

~LINE

_There once was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself,_

_Not just sometimes, but always._

~Norton Juster

_The Phantom Toolbooth_

* * *

Our story begins in a room that was clean.

Mostly.

And, to be more specific, a hog-pile of blankets, pajamas, and pillow that was breathing. If one looked closer, they would have seen a teenaged-ish girl, fast asleep. But most people – except her, of course, because she lived there – couldn't see head or tail of anything, thanks to the room-darkening red curtains that filled the room with a Redstone-torch-esque glow.

But all this isn't important. It's more what will happen when said girl – we'll call her Ann, for simplicity – will wake up, and, to be even more specific, when she will get on her laptop.

In order to do this, allow me to fast-forward until that happens.

* * *

I plunked down in my deskchair, which was alright besides the fact it was missing the backrest and the seat itself was about to fall off at any given moment.

The chair breaking was _not_ my fault; if it's not connected to electricity, I can break it. The only exception being ear buds. They always break when placed in my care for more than a month. I think I'm cursed by being an anti-Minas; everything I touch turns to mold. Meaning, it breaks and gets sent to the dump.

But today I had hopes. Today I was going to try a new Minecraft server and see if I didn't get instantly spawn-killed by dirtbag retardians; I did my research, and apparently the owner had some sort of randomized-spawn-thing set up, so I had hopes.

Once my laptop was officially turned on and connected to the internet, I clicked on the little icon of a three-dimensional grass block with the title underneath reading "Minecraft"

After logging in, I clicked on the button that read "Multiplayer" and entered the server IP, in the title space I just wrote "VanillaCraft" as that was what the server was called anyway.

The universe held its breath, as if it knew how much this server would change my life.

I clicked the button "Join server"

* * *

**A/N: So, there you have it. Little teaser-chapter thing for you all. Please let me know if you want me to continue, people who haven't reviewed. I'd do a poll on my profile, but I only have like one or two diligent reviewers, so it'd probably go ker-splat and fail. I'm relying on you guys, so please please PLEASE let me know if you want me to continue or not /3**

**My name is SkyLadyAnnemarie, R.I.P VanillaCraft, and I bid you – slightly sadly – adieu.**


	3. Chapter 1: I Need a Hero!

**A/N: Ohi there. So, I've decided to continue this. Fred the Writer's Block has been gaining his revenge on ALWH, so I decided to at least give this story a go. Wish me luck!**

**Disclaimer: I only own the poetry, myself, and of course the story. Minecraft belongs to Mojang, the other players belong to themselves, VanillaCraft belongs to the owner whose username escapes me, etc etc etc.**

**ALLONS-Y!**

* * *

After a brief pause in which I – err, my character - was suspended in the Void, and then with the sudden sensation of being squeezed through a small metal pipe, roasted in an oven, and then chucked in a freezer, I spawned.

There was a small intro-section-thing which I can't remember much otherwise I'd put the whole thing in, but the jest of it was a sort of pre-game thing where you're in God mode and invisible to other players and such and the owner says the basic no spamming the chat/no advertizing/no hacking/etc rules; apparently this guy had some sort of spam blocker that instantly permabanned you and a randomized spawn so no one gets spawn killed/the spawn doesn't get flooded with lava. Nice.

Then, when it was over, I was pushed into the earth and died.

"_**Everyone welcome SkyLadyAnnemarie to this awesome server!**_" proclaimed a booming voice, and instantly my ears are full of different people saying hi and welcome. I was in a small open area of a dense forest, there was not a player to be seen, and, luckily, it was early dawn.

Good. This means I can get some stuff (Hopefully food) and get settled in what I dubbed as "SpawnLand"

I walked over to an oak, pulled back my fist, and punched.

Imagine punching a gritty beanbag covered in bark; you don't get hurt, but it feels weird.

A few harmless trees getting pwned later, and I head out to go cave-spelunking. Since no one was talking directly to me, I hadn't bothered saying anything except a polite thank-you when I respawned into the world as just another player.

After skipping merrily along for a few minutes, the sun was beginning to go down.

Thankfully, I had already spotted a cave and began my standard pre-cave crafting. No food had crossed my path, sadly, and I could already feel my stomach beginning to moan pitifully in need of food. In fact, I hadn't seen much of _anything_ today; not even sheep.

Well, maybe I'll run into a zombie or two. Even though it looks bad and tastes worse, rotten flesh should hold me for a little while, at least until I run into someone Else's base.

A stone pick and some iron later, and I had a shiny-looking iron sword. I swung it around a little to test it out; it was as balanced as an iron sword could get, but I wasn't one of the best swordsmen. I mostly attempted peace or, when it was mobs we were talking about, used a bow to snipe. I had decent aim, but lacked practice on other players and anything that didn't pause once or twice.

Nonetheless, this sword would have to do until I ran into some skeletons and spiders.

Packing everything up, I headed back out into the moonlit world.

I considered hunting down some sheep in greener pastures to make a bed, but realized that was stupid; everyone on here was at different points of survival and since some of them, most likely, are lacking in the bedding department; sleeping in one would mean being vulnerable to anything nasty until the sun rose. No, unless I was in a legit base, a bed would only mean trouble.

That was when I exploded.

_**SkyLadyAnnemarie got blown up by a Creeper!**_ The server announced.

I respawned, and considered running back to try and get my stuff.

I peered in what was hopefully in the direction of where I went, and saw nothing but skeletons, spiders, zombies, and yes, creepers.

How about no.

I couldn't just sit here all night; I could already see some skeletons noticing my presence.

I hated skeletons. Most of my hardcore worlds ended because of a skele dungeon or two, or one in a cave getting a lucky shot. I shook with rage, did an impolite hand gesture at them, and ran deeper into the woods.

Yup, totally SkyLady-like.

I ran until I feared I'd collapse, and saw torchlight in the distance.

I peered around in search of another player, but saw none. I got lucky.

The small base had a (sadly empty) wheat farm, some crafting tables here and there, a furnace or two (which were also empty, dangit) and some chests that were gathering dust, also void of anything useful. A staircase led deep into the earth, and, seeing that I had to grit my teeth and rough it out for the night, I decided to head down into the bowls of the earth. After all, minor shelter is better than no shelter, right?

On my way down, I came to the conclusion that this old base was either raided or the player who owned it moved to another base; the sign over the staircase said to whom the base belonged, but the words were faded and peeling off the sign. I decided that, most likely, both happened; the raiders found this place, stripped it of all its goodies (including food,) while the player was away, and when he/she returned, decided to pack up what was left and go.

At least no skelebutts followed me down here, I thought, as the torches slowly grew in distance and eventually I was left in the darkness of a cave.

Anyway, all that sprinting had gotten my hunger to an all-time low; I'd starve to death if food wasn't found stat.

Out of nowhere, a zombie jumped on me, sniffing me for brains and pinning me on the floor.

Oh, how I wished I still had my iron sword.

It was seconds before the next death message appeared:

_**SkyLadyAnnemarie was killed by a zombie!**_

I grit my teeth and respawned as the sun mockingly rose above the surface.

So SpawnLand wasn't as safe as it appeared.

I began making conversation among the other players, after all, it's best we get to know each other so they don't kill me on sight.

After that, as the sun went down, I went into a cycle: respawn, gather materials, try to leave SpawnLand, [insert nocturnal monster here] kills me, respawn, and so on.

So you can imagine my slight shock when one day, as I was preparing for my nightly massacre, I saw a couple of buildings and – thank Notch – a farm. Wheat and melons hanging around growing, right next to SpawnLand's forest!

I gathered some wheat and melons, replanting the seeds because I'm not a griefing dirtbag, and wondered who the heck built this and why wasn't he/she there.

There was a cobble main building with a nether portal on top, and over a door a pleasant sign read "Greetings, fair traveler!"

Inside there was a small chest, a furnace, and a crafting table. A sort of attempt at a table and chairs was near a small window, the glass knocked out except for a couple stubborn shards, overseeing the farm.

I walked onto the roof and wondered if I should risk the Nether. I mean, I know that it's He** and all, and I'd probably get lost, but why not? I heard that you can travel very far very fast there; wouldn't it be fun to check out unexplored lands?

But I shook my head, made bread from the wheat, and went on my way. My multiplayer logic says if it's there and mostly untouched, someone's living in it. The place, nice as it was, could not hold me down for long and besides, if I've found one building, shouldn't others be around too? Besides, I need supplies, and unless the players here are complete morons, all the good stuff will be hidden anyway.

I wandered the meadow, and eventually came across somethings of interest; a lava-tower, a (griefed) attempt at a castle, and the charred remains of a small village.

So I guess this officially means this server isn't greifer-free.

Good, I love a challenge.

Unfortunately, as soon as the sun went down, I fell into the same nighttime cycle of respawn-death.

It's like SpawnLand is cursed or something.

Finally, the night cycle was over; and that's when another life-changing event happened.

**Zorronc32: Sky, stop it, you're making me depressed xD**

**SkyLadyAnnemarie: Yeah… I don't think SpawnLand likes me very much :L**

**Zorronc32: What's your coords? There's a safe house at:**

This, although it probably isn't the most accurate of retellings, is the first contact between me and someone who would, eventually, become my best friend.

Say hello to Zorro.

* * *

**A/N: And there goes the first official chapter of TTOAS! And already we meet one of the other main characters :D**

**What really happened: I first joined VanillaCraft a few months before I was officially hooked. I did die that many times, probably more, and Zorro did eventually come to the rescue, but before that I was joking around with the other players and came up with the term "SpawnLand" for my default spawn, and it kinda stuck. I don't remember who exactly was there and who wasn't, and what was said, so I decided to not really put much of that in. Nonetheless, it was those guys who had me well and truly hooked on VanillaCraft, even though one hardly ever saw another player unless you got really lucky (or really unlucky, depends upon who you meet)**

**Next chapter: We meet Zorronc32 and go on an adventure!**

**My name is SkyLadyAnnemarie, Zorronc32 is just reeking of awesomeness (and so am I, in a way), and I bid you adieu.**


End file.
